It’s ridiculously easy for a brand to get started on social media.
But it can also be ridiculously hard for a brand to master the art of the social news feed – not to mention navigate bad feedback and foster relationships with followers.
To help you out, this post will cover 4 quick and easy social media hacks to explode your audience growth.
Let’s get into it!
1. Everybody loves a good story
Marketing provides an amazing opportunity to tell stories. Stories are one of the most powerful and engaging tools around – and they’re free!
The modern consumer has little patience for formal, corporate brands – they want personality and pizzazz. A little bit of personality goes a long way.
To cut through the chatter of other brands on the market and make your product offering stand out, you need to tell your brand’s story. It’s a fantastic way to garner trust, and impassion your users with what you have to offer.
GoPro offer a great example of this. The company posted an open letter from Nicholas Woodman (founder and CEO) in which he addressed his customers. The letter read:
“GoPro helps people capture and share their lives’ most meaningful experiences with others – to celebrate them together. Like how a day on the mountain with friends is more meaningful than one spent alone, the sharing of our collective experiences makes our lives more fun. The world’s most versatile cameras are what we make. Enabling you to share your life through incredible photos and videos is what we do.”
GoPro also embedded the following video on their ‘About us’ page:
Not only do these pieces of content highlight the brilliance of GoPro’s products, but they also evoke emotions from the reader, taking them back to special moments that they themselves wish they could film.
Consider telling an authentic brand story via video on your company’s own ‘About us’ page.
There’s no need to overcomplicate it – a few shareable facts about the conception of your brand and your employees will suffice. For more information on creating a brand story, check out this fantastic how-to guide.
2. There’s a meme for every occasion
Image Source: Jimmy John’s
If you’re already active on social media, then you will undoubtedly have been exposed to a multitude of memes. The very definition of the word ‘meme’ has taken a new meaning in the digital world, and these pieces of visual content, typically humorous in nature, are copied and spread across the internet like wildfire.
Due to their visual nature, memes work very well on social media. They are extremely shareable and offer value to the viewer, whether it be entertainment or information. Jimmy John’s have well and truly mastered the art of meme production and distribution with their ‘You Vs. The Guy She Tells You Not To Worry About’ sandwich meme. This meme received a great reception and was retweeted 2,703 times – just think of how many people saw this and thought of the Jimmy John’s brand!
So, how can you capitalize on the meme trend yourself? Quite easily, actually. Sites like Meme Generator allow you to caption an image of your choosing, doing the legwork for you.
You can even put your brand’s name in the bottom corner of the meme so that, when reposted, your brand will gain the credit and personality for the meme. Using pre-existing memes is great too, and can allow you to partake in social media conversations and hashtags at the drop of a hat.
Everybody loves a splash of wit.
3. Social selling is the final frontier
Social media has developed in leaps and bounds over the last year or so. It’s now increasingly common for brands to sell directly on social networks.
Here’s why you should be investing your marketing budget in your social selling strategy:
- You can learn more about your target audience by following hashtags, trends, and conversations. This will help with your customer profiling.
- You can reach out to new audiences in a non-creepy way. If you use social media right, you can broaden your reach internationally to people who you would never have been noticed by before.
- Customers find social selling super convenient because they can make a purchase without even leaving the social app. You can now integrate your social media networks with some selected ecommerce solutions such as Shopify.
Image Source: TechCrunch
Don’t fall prey to filling your brand’s social feeds purely with promotional posts. It’s really important to offer value to your followers to prevent them from getting bored. It’s so easy for them to click the dreaded ‘unfollow’ button. Consider getting involved in trending events, conversations and hashtags to stay current and interesting.
Lush Cosmetics have the right idea. They engage with the world through their social feed by regularly posting with relevant hashtags, which openly reveal their political stance and encourage debate. Twubs and Hashtags offer great tools to monitor trending hashtags and align yourself to join in.
If you can master social selling while peppering your feed with relevant, entertaining or informative posts, you’ll be onto a winner.
4. Say it with flowers… I mean, video content
If you’re not posting or sharing video content on social media, then you’re not using it to its full potential. Visual marketing is one of the best ways for you to engage, entertain and surprise your audience.
Did you know that 64% of viewers are more likely to buy online after watching a related video?
Here’s some more food for thought:
- If you’re looking to meet consumers at the ‘awareness’ stage, you can create a video about a particular problem, question, or simply tell your brand’s story
- The ‘consideration’ stage can be further tapped into by presenting a buyer’s guide or a selection of options for the user to choose from
- A video for customers at the ‘decision’ stage could directly promote your product offering as the ideal solution
The best way to avoid this sort of situation is to play your video in focus groups before releasing it into the wild to ensure that it represents your brand in the best possible light.
In closing
Social media is powerful but it does take a quick-thinking marketer to integrate it properly into a brand’s messaging mix. Surprisingly, it does take a lot of skill just to employ memes in the right way!
It’s worth it though. Go ahead and give your brand a human face – avoid being a drab corporate giant at all costs.
Your social media engagement rates will thank you.
Guest Author: Patrick Foster is a freelance writer and contributor to multiple marketing and ecommerce blogs. He loves sharing his knowledge with others in the industry. He’s passionate about business, startups and all things social.